I learned a bit from Friedan about not overdramatizing my case in
my own book. She describes womens’ lot in 1950s America as a comfortable
concentration camp. This greatly overstates her case and turned me off as
a reader. I think it will be necessary in my own book to draw parallels
to things that people understand, but the parallels must be more judicious than
this. It may seem just as preposterous to the American public to think
that their military is not entirely selfless as it does to me that being a housewife
is anything like being in a concentration camp physically or in social
psychology. My book will also be different from Friedan’s in another
way. I am thinking about the chapter about now. Maybe it will be
called Doubt and Confidence. I am doubting just about everything, my purpose
here, my own assessment of the direness of the situation, my very purpose on
this planet. Other people are confident, they may be ignorant, but they
are confident. Here is the difference from Friedan’s book. If she put
chapter 13 [up front, then] everyone would put the book down because the claims seem outrageous,
but a series of slow, small, steps must allow people to accept the more
powerful claims at the end of the book. Like a frog in water. I
wonder if my book should be different, if just after the stuff solution we hit
not resolution, but just doubt. It is a hell of a let-down, but it is
accurate, and it is pretty hard to get more illustrative than that
convoy.

I went to the Lines of Operations sync meeting this morning.
The Colonel himself was there and said that we needed to make sure that we
spent all of the money from the Commander’s Emergency Response Program fund so
that we can get the same amount next year (if you don’t use it you lose
it). There was not talk of efficacy, just spending umpteen
millions. Local governance has the same problem we do in the ANA I
guess. A bunch of judges just go UA or take very extended leave, there is
constant theft, etc. The Colonel himself said ‘maybe we should just pull
everyone out this summer we just can’t get these people to get out of their own
way.’

I worked on the Doc’s award. I’m glad I did I think other
guys would have fucked it up.

Salim went to a detainee class in the morning at my behest. I
tried to get him to work on the slide for the commander’s conference, but he
said the XO had told him not to use it. Salim didn’t want to go see the
XO because he didn’t have a hat, blouse or boots on, but eventually the XO
called him in anyway and he had to go put them on. I spoke to the XO
about the HUMINT money, he said he told General Malouk, but nothing was
happening. Sigh. The Colonel in the meeting this morning was talking
about how the HUMINT money was the General’s vacation fund and we need to tell
him we are not happy with him stealing it…hmmm sounds like a job for….you, sir.